# Should we get rid of pennies?



## bulbasaur (Mar 30, 2012)

Asking since I just found out that Canada's going to be eliminating pennies from circulation.

National Post: 





> What will we do without them?
> As per the 2010 senate recommendations, Canadians will simply be asked to round prices up or down to the nearest nickel. Credit card users, however, will still be required to pay to pay to the cent. Does that discrepancy leave Canada vulnerable to small-scale fraud, like the Richard Pryor character in Superman III who scams his employer by filling a dummy account with the fractions of cents left over from financial transactions? Maybe, but so far nobody else seems to have had a problem with ditching low-denomination coins. Like most currency-related issues, Canada is way behind the times on this one. More than a dozen countries including Israel, Switzerland and Brazil have successfully eliminated single-unit coins. Not to mention the iconic British half-penny, which was phased out under Margaret Thatcher.





> While we’re tossing out coins, why not the nickel?
> Soon enough. Nickels are already relatively useless – and like all coins they’re dropping in value each year. New Zealand phased out its one-cent coin in the 1980s and then its five-cent coin in 2009. It’s a strategy Desjardins strongly recommends, since eliminating more than one coin at a time could cause unneeded confusion and economic damage. Once the penny is successfully gone, “the federal government should consider, a few years later, the relevance of removing the five-cent coin,” stated Desjardins in 2007.


Vancouver Sun: 





> Garth Whyte, president and CEO of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association said the change will have real implications.
> 
> While getting rid of the penny may seem like a simple solution, he said "there will be major transitional challenges for restaurateurs, such as reprogramming cash registers, pricing and employee training issues" for the restaurant industry.


As for me, I love pennies and hate to see them go, but the country's budget (1.5 cents per penny produced = $130 million / year!) comes before sentimental value.


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## Cerberus87 (Mar 30, 2012)

Pennies are useless. They just make everything more complicated, and people even try to avoid using them anyway.

BTW I'm from Brazil and I used to have a penny until recently!


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## Tarvos (Mar 30, 2012)

Netherlands phased out the 1/2 eurocents a long while back and stopped minting them. They're legal tender though.


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## Ether's Bane (Mar 30, 2012)

And you can add Malaysia as another country who phased out its 0.01 coin (a few years ago).


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## Tailsy (Mar 30, 2012)

that wouldn't even work here!! the backs of our small change coins come together to make up the shield, we'd have to change EVERYTHING GEEZ. 







see how sugoi is that shit.


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## ultraviolet (Mar 30, 2012)

^ that is _so cool_ I wish our coins did that

uhhh yeah I'm always surprised when other countries still have pennies? We haven't had them for ages, our smallest denomination is 5c, and some people think we should be rid of those, too.


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## Dar (Mar 30, 2012)

Pennies should not be made but should still be considered legal tender. That is all.


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## CJBlazer (Mar 30, 2012)

Pennies are really useless. I am from America and even here, they need to go. They are the only copper coin still being made and not very good at much. So yeah, pennies go bye-bye!!


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## Superbird (Mar 30, 2012)

Practically, they're pretty useless and I wouldn't mind losing them.

However, I still want a chance to walk up to the dollar store and buy a $4 item and then pay for it in pennies alone, meticulously counting up...when I'm at like 372 I'll make a mistake and start over, and then I'll eventually come up one cent short.


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## Phantom (Mar 31, 2012)

Superbird said:


> Practically, they're pretty useless and I wouldn't mind losing them.
> 
> However, I still want a chance to walk up to the dollar store and buy a $4 item and then pay for it in pennies alone, meticulously counting up...when I'm at like 372 I'll make a mistake and start over, and then I'll eventually come up one cent short.


You are absolute evil.

It would be a lot of work to get rid of it, like reprograming stuff and altering prices... it will get rid of that annoying insert dollar amount-.99 thing though.


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## K'yoril (Mar 31, 2012)

bulbasaur, if your country rids it self of pennies, won't the sentimental value _increase_, since there will eventually be less of them to go around?

Either way, I think they should go, simply because of how much more they cost to make than they're worth, and how annoying it is to pay with them.


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## Datura (Mar 31, 2012)

Why not get rid of cash entirely?


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## Vipera Magnifica (Mar 31, 2012)

Superbird said:


> Practically, they're pretty useless and I wouldn't mind losing them.
> 
> However, I still want a chance to walk up to the dollar store and buy a $4 item and then pay for it in pennies alone, meticulously counting up...when I'm at like 372 I'll make a mistake and start over, and then I'll eventually come up one cent short.


Read this.


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## Coroxn (Mar 31, 2012)

I, for one, _like_ pennies. What harm are they doing anyone? I mean, they were awesome for crafts and stuff, and I like having a walletful of pennies that I can bring into a bank and get turned into big money. Though technically we have cents.


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## ultraviolet (Mar 31, 2012)

Superbird said:


> Practically, they're pretty useless and I wouldn't mind losing them.
> 
> However, I still want a chance to walk up to the dollar store and buy a $4 item and then pay for it in pennies alone, meticulously counting up...when I'm at like 372 I'll make a mistake and start over, and then I'll eventually come up one cent short.


hi congratulations for being the least-liked customer for everyone who works in retail ever. this is kind of a rude thing to do because naturally a checkout operator has to either a) sit there and watch you count it to make sure you get it correct or b) count it again ourselves. both of these things hold up other customers and it also holds up the checkout operator from getting any other work done. sure, they will probably act as amused as you when you dump a fistful of coins on the counter, but they're probably seething under that façade. I mean go ahead and do it - it's legal tender after all - but just because you can, doesn't mean you should!



Coroxn said:


> I, for one, _like_ pennies. What harm are they doing anyone? I mean, they were awesome for crafts and stuff, and I like having a walletful of pennies that I can bring into a bank and get turned into big money. Though technically we have cents.


I think the general gist of the argument is that a penny costs more to produce than $0.01 (resulting in an overall loss), and that they're pretty superfluous anyway. if your argument for keeping pennies is 'I like them', then you can kind of see why a lot of governments are pretty keen on getting rid of them: there really isn't much of a reason to keep them other than sentimentality, which will increase anyway when pennies are phased out.


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## Blastoise Fortooate (Mar 31, 2012)

Ideally, we'd be able to make everything cost less, and also remove the equivalent amount of money from circulation, in order to make pennies more useful. Not gonna happen though, so.

Let's just stop making pennies and let nature take its course?


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## Jason-Kun (Mar 31, 2012)

No. Pennies are useful for when stuff comes out to ridiculous prices and you don't want to break a five, ten, etc.


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## Cerberus87 (Mar 31, 2012)

Dātura;583688 said:
			
		

> Why not get rid of cash entirely?


Hi, I want to buy a gallon of wine from you. I have a cow and a bag of apples. How can we sort it out?


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## Tarvos (Mar 31, 2012)

Use a debit card that directly withdraws the money from your bank account. Over here cash transactions are used less and less in favour of just swiping your debit card through a little machine that allows you to wire the money directly from your bank account. No more fuss with having cash.

We've been doing this for years.


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## Dannichu (Mar 31, 2012)

ultraviolet said:


> hi congratulations for being the least-liked customer for everyone who works in retail ever. this is kind of a rude thing to do because naturally a checkout operator has to either a) sit there and watch you count it to make sure you get it correct or b) count it again ourselves. both of these things hold up other customers and it also holds up the checkout operator from getting any other work done. sure, they will probably act as amused as you when you dump a fistful of coins on the counter, but they're probably seething under that façade. I mean go ahead and do it - it's legal tender after all - but just because you can, doesn't mean you should!


In the UK at least, a shop owner (not sure about someone just working a till) has the right to refuse to accept payment in the form of ludicrous change.

I'm all for abolition of the UK penny, and the continued existence of the American penny blows my mind. While we're rearranging currency, we need a circulating £5 coin (less environmentally friendly short-term, but stays in circulation for far longer), the US needs a $1 coin and probably a $5 coin - at the very least, the US needs more note differentiation! That they're all the same colour is irritating, but the same size? How do blind people pay for things? - and the Euro needs to stop having notes that go up to insanely high denominations.


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## goldenquagsire (Mar 31, 2012)

> hi congratulations for being the least-liked customer for everyone who works in retail ever. this is kind of a rude thing to do because naturally a checkout operator has to either a) sit there and watch you count it to make sure you get it correct or b) count it again ourselves. both of these things hold up other customers and it also holds up the checkout operator from getting any other work done. sure, they will probably act as amused as you when you dump a fistful of coins on the counter, but they're probably seething under that façade. I mean go ahead and do it - it's legal tender after all - but just because you can, doesn't mean you should!


well stop setting all your prices at £X.99 and then maybe we won't have as much useless small change clogging up our wallets all the time. :P



> Use a debit card that directly withdraws the money from your bank account. Over here cash transactions are used less and less in favour of just swiping your debit card through a little machine that allows you to wire the money directly from your bank account. No more fuss with having cash.
> 
> We've been doing this for years.


I can see the advantages in this, but tbh I prefer using cash whenever possible. at least for me, it helps with budgeting if I can physically see money. paying for everything by card just leads to the temptation of "oh it's fine, I can afford to blow an extra few pounds on this".

not to mention the situations where you just don't want to pay by card, whether it's an issue of convenience (for example, in a crowded bar you really don't want to encourage people to pay by card)* or privacy (what if you don't want your spouse's birthday present to come up on the joint account's bank statement?).

*unrelated story: when I went to my local pub with a friend last week, we had two airheads in the queue in front of us trying to pay for £3.80 drinks with a credit card. the poor bartender had quite a time explaining to them the £5 minimum rule...


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## ultraviolet (Mar 31, 2012)

goldenquagsire said:


> well stop setting all your prices at £X.99 and then maybe we won't have as much useless small change clogging up our wallets all the time. :P


... we don't (AUD sales round to the nearest 0.05), and that really doesn't have anything to do with the fact that people think it's hilarious to use a handful of 5-cent coins to buy something. There's quite a big difference between adding a couple coins in your wallet towards your payment and turning up to a shop with a jar of pennies; the latter is kind of a dick thing to do (take it to a bank, it's their job to count money).

and uh generally cashiers have 0% of the vote when it comes to pricing but yeah


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## goldenquagsire (Mar 31, 2012)

ultraviolet said:


> ... we don't (AUD sales round to the nearest 0.05), and that really doesn't have anything to do with the fact that people think it's hilarious to use a handful of 5-cent coins to buy something. There's quite a big difference between adding a couple coins in your wallet towards your payment and turning up to a shop with a jar of pennies; the latter is kind of a dick thing to do (take it to a bank, it's their job to count money).
> 
> and uh generally cashiers have 0% of the vote when it comes to pricing but yeah


The ":P" meant it was a joke. :P


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## Tailsy (Mar 31, 2012)

but the joke doesn't make any sense when you see uv's explanation, thus it's not really a joke!


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## Music Dragon (Mar 31, 2012)

It's still a joke, it just sucks.


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## Tailsy (Mar 31, 2012)

and yet again, music dragon saves the day.


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## Coroxn (Mar 31, 2012)

ultraviolet said:


> I think the general gist of the argument is that a penny costs more to produce than $0.01 (resulting in an overall loss), and that they're pretty superfluous anyway. if your argument for keeping pennies is 'I like them', then you can kind of see why a lot of governments are pretty keen on getting rid of them: there really isn't much of a reason to keep them other than sentimentality, which will increase anyway when pennies are phased out.


Oh. Well, if they're actually costing money then get rid of them. I didn't know there was any downside, and thought people were just getting rid of them for the sake of efficiency. If this negative aspect about them is true, burn, Penny, burn.


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## goldenquagsire (Mar 31, 2012)

Twilight Sparkle said:


> but the joke doesn't make any sense when you see uv's explanation, thus it's not really a joke!


it still makes sense if you bear in mind a few things:
a) for the sake of the joke, cashiers represent the organisations they work for. it's easier than saying "your employers set the prices ridiculously".
b) it doesn't matter if there's a difference between reasonable use of change and excessive use of change. hyperbole is one the foundation of humour.
c) I'm not Australian, but my joke can be modified to whatever currency you feel like using (since setting stupid non-round prices seems to be a pretty universal constant, I'm sure there's some economic theory which explains it...)

tl;dr how to not take jokes literally



> It's still a joke, it just sucks.


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## Phantom (Mar 31, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> the US needs a $1 coin and probably a $5 coin - at the very least, the US needs more note differentiation! That they're all the same colour is irritating, but the same size? How do blind people pay for things?


Actually there is a one dollar coin, and it's actually pretty common. In fact in my pocket right now I have about four, from the vending machine at work. They've got quite a few different kinds, the Liberties, and now they are running through all the presidents. I've got a Liberty, two Washington's, and one Madison. 

There are ways for blind people to figure out how much each dollar is; like folding the corners down on ones, folding fives in half, folding tens length wise, and so on. There are even braille wallets. 

Also they are changing the designs on the dollars already, slowly but surely. All the new dollars.

Five
Ten
Twenty
Fifty
Hundred

They are redesigning the one dollar too, I hear.


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## Tarvos (Mar 31, 2012)

> not to mention the situations where you just don't want to pay by card, whether it's an issue of convenience (for example, in a crowded bar you really don't want to encourage people to pay by card)* or privacy (what if you don't want your spouse's birthday present to come up on the joint account's bank statement?).



correct, the establishments for which cash payments are common are cafes, restaurants, catering services that have sit-down areas. That's where cash is used but if you checkout at any supermarket or shop the first question shopkeepers or sales assistants ask is "wil je pinnen?" (you want to PIN?)". 

if you are concerned about privacy coming up on your bank statement - don't get a shared bank account. it's that simple! and also, most of these bank statement notifications are pretty undecipherable anyway. furthermore, nobody in the Netherlands gets paper bank statements anymore - almost all of the banking system is done electronically. Web shops are operated using iDeal - you basically log in online to wire money to the vendor directly from your bank account - no more messing with credit card fees and such, just a straight payment directly from your bank account corresponding exactly to the stated tariff. if you want to know your current bank statement you log into the bank's website (the bank who has sold you the account) and you can see it directly. you use a particular type of code (TAN codes they are called as I remember) as verification when you send money. 

All bank transfers within the country are wired within a day. Most in-country bank transfers are actually wired pretty much the instant you hit the send button and will show up mere seconds later on your online bank account.

Tax returns are rarely done with forms, it's all done electronically.

I barely if ever use cash for that reason so if I have cash on me it's because I intended to take out a girl for lunch/dinner or I'm getting drunk at the pub - neither are super frequent occurrences but they happen every once in a while. (if I buy food at uni I use my chipknip, which is basically a prepaid section of your PIN card - I hope they'll phase that out soon as it's not very popular but it's used in company/university establishments and it avoids having to type in your pin code all the time)

I used cash a lot more in Belgium though because Belgium doesn't understand iDeal and not all the machines take foreign ATM cards directly (you have to check if they use Maestro, which they do often but not always - and the fucking train ticket vending machines didn't). So in Belgium I always had to use cash for the things I would buy online or using PIN in the Netherlands.

The American way of paying for everything by credit card is something I do not and never will understand - I only use credit cards for hotel reservations (as a proof of identity) or because I cannot PayPal/iDeal my particular webshop the money (they are probably foreign in that case). If you own a lot of credit cards in the Netherlands that means you're a yuppie nouveau riche upstart who's interested in being way too fancy for his own good, and if you own one single card that is just because you want to have that hotel reservation sorted properly.


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## Shiny Grimer (Mar 31, 2012)

Phantom said:


> Actually there is a one dollar coin, and it's actually pretty common. In fact in my pocket right now I have about four, from the vending machine at work. They've got quite a few different kinds, the Liberties, and now they are running through all the presidents. I've got a Liberty, two Washington's, and one Madison.


I don't think I've ever had one. I've seen other people's, but I've never had one. :c


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## Sypl (Mar 31, 2012)

A video on the subject.
Pennies need to go.


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## Dannichu (Apr 1, 2012)

goldenquagsire said:


> I can see the advantages in this, but tbh I prefer using cash whenever possible. at least for me, it helps with budgeting if I can physically see money. paying for everything by card just leads to the temptation of "oh it's fine, I can afford to blow an extra few pounds on this".


Good god, this. I shouldn't be allowed to shop online ever. My mind rationally knows that there's a difference between spending actual money and things like neopoints, but when I'm just clicking buttons and typing in a few numbers, what damage can it really do?

And I never saw dollar coins when I was in the US. I just used my accent to charm the checkout-person while I drowned in scrap silver and identical banknotes, eventually handing a bunch of money over, from which they'd pick out the correct change and ask me about the Royal Wedding.


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## goldenquagsire (Apr 1, 2012)

> Good god, this. I shouldn't be allowed to shop online ever. My mind rationally knows that there's a difference between spending actual money and things like neopoints, but when I'm just clicking buttons and typing in a few numbers, what damage can it really do?


see also: nights out on the town. I always withdraw money before going out (York nightlife is bloody cheap so I can usually get away with less than £20 if you factor out predrinks) and then leave my card at home so I can't be tempted to take out more. I learned that trick from a friend who once spent £100 in a single night (which ironically is probably the standard budget for a night out in London lol).


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## ultraviolet (Apr 1, 2012)

goldenquagsire said:


> it still makes sense if you bear in mind a few things:
> a) for the sake of the joke, cashiers represent the organisations they work for. it's easier than saying "your employers set the prices ridiculously".
> b) it doesn't matter if there's a difference between reasonable use of change and excessive use of change. hyperbole is one the foundation of humour.
> c) I'm not Australian, but my joke can be modified to whatever currency you feel like using (since setting stupid non-round prices seems to be a pretty universal constant, I'm sure there's some economic theory which explains it...)
> ...


well okay to start off I was tired at the time so I didn't mean to jump down your throat or something, but honestly if the only thing identifying something as a joke is ':P', and also that thing about Sarcasm Over the Internet, etc. you see where I'm coming from.


Twilight Sparkle said:


> and yet again, music dragon saves the day.


just one of the many reasons why having a sassy BFF is _awesome
_


			
				Phantom said:
			
		

> There are ways for blind people to figure out how much each dollar is;  like folding the corners down on ones, folding fives in half, folding  tens length wise, and so on. There are even braille wallets.


But that still relies on the blind person needing to have someone to tell them what their notes are worth in the first place, which sucks. There are so many ways to make money accessible to the blind (AUD notes are different lengths and have different shaped windows, some places have braille on their money, etc.) that I'm always surprised that US money looks so identical (even the colours! AUD is a veritable rainbow of dollars in comparison to US dollars). Also folding money can suck because lots of things like vending machines or ATMS and sometimes banks will refuse notes if they're very worn from being folded a lot.


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## see ya (Apr 1, 2012)

Would this mean the end of the douchebag who pays for a $5 order entirely in pennies? 

As a former cashier, hell fucking yes then.


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## Dannichu (Apr 1, 2012)

goldenquagsire said:


> see also: nights out on the town. I always withdraw money before going out (York nightlife is bloody cheap so I can usually get away with less than £20 if you factor out predrinks) and then leave my card at home so I can't be tempted to take out more. I learned that trick from a friend who once spent £100 in a single night (which ironically is probably the standard budget for a night out in London lol).


So very jealous. When I buy two drinks in Canterbury, I don't get much change out of £10. It's so expensive here, even the student bars. 

So unless it's somebody's birthday, we stay in and play awful drinking games with Tesco value vodka and whatever mixers we find instead. #thestudentlife



			
				uv said:
			
		

> But that still relies on the blind person needing to have someone to tell them what their notes are worth in the first place, which sucks.


Exactly, how does a blind person know that they've been given the correct change? Having better note differentiation would make everybody's lives easier, I think.


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## Tarvos (Apr 1, 2012)

I believe they can feel the paper grooves and differentiate that way


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## Music Dragon (Apr 1, 2012)

Yeah, and they use echolocation to find the cashier in the first place.


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## Tarvos (Apr 1, 2012)

I believe the sides of Euro coins also have specific markings and grooves that allow blind people to tell the difference between coins (f.e. 1/2 euros, 10/20/50 cents)


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## Coroxn (Apr 1, 2012)

Tarvos said:


> I believe the sides of Euro coins also have specific markings and grooves that allow blind people to tell the difference between coins (f.e. 1/2 euros, 10/20/50 cents)


They do. They are also all different sizes, and have the number raised out a bit. Notes, however, I'm unsure about.


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## Tailsy (Apr 1, 2012)

pretty sure euro notes are at least different sizes?


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## Tarvos (Apr 1, 2012)

Yeah they are different sizes but if the paper's crumpled up that wouldn't be a big help though


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## Spoon (Apr 1, 2012)

Definitely! Pennies have always been a hassle for me to carry around and the money saved by not making them would at least be something to help with our massive debt. Although, I wonder if companies will continue with charging with 99 cents, though, seeing as gasoline prices still insist on having 9/10 of a cent on their prices.

 Also agree on difference lengths on dollar bills for the blind and replacing the dollar bill with a coin.


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## goldenquagsire (Apr 1, 2012)

> So very jealous. When I buy two drinks in Canterbury, I don't get much change out of £10. It's so expensive here, even the student bars.
> 
> So unless it's somebody's birthday, we stay in and play awful drinking games with Tesco value vodka and whatever mixers we find instead. #thestudentlife


cheap booze is the advantage to living up north! the disadvantage is that you have to live up north.

that's pretty grim if £10 only gets you that far. I'd have thought that outside of London/Brighton prices would be slightly less ridiculous. ah well, drinking at home can still be fun! half the time my house's pre-lash turns into the main event since we're too lazy to drag ourselves into town.


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## Jolty (Apr 1, 2012)

goldenquagsire said:


> cheap booze is the advantage to living up north! the disadvantage is that you have to live up north.


you live in york.
york is posh as all fuck.
hell, one bit that is posh as hell has in fact been described as a shit hole by someone that lived there. this bit had 2 private schools on one street and a bazillion giant houses nearby.
if you stepped out into somewhere that was /really/ northern you'd get nutted in 5 seconds.


as
for
pennies

i was surprised to learn that several countries got rid of them actually
but yeah like tailsy said (i think it was tailsy?) if we got rid of our pennies the shield would have a hole in it and everything would be ALL WRONG
also we'd have to get rid of 2ps. who else even HAS 2ps.


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## Tailsy (Apr 1, 2012)

who doesn't love a good 2p? just hangin' around in there, being bigger than all the other coin denominations except £2 for some godawful reason.


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## Dannichu (Apr 1, 2012)

goldenquagsire said:


> cheap booze is the advantage to living up north! the disadvantage is that you have to live up north.
> 
> that's pretty grim if £10 only gets you that far. I'd have thought that outside of London/Brighton prices would be slightly less ridiculous. ah well, drinking at home can still be fun! half the time my house's pre-lash turns into the main event since we're too lazy to drag ourselves into town.


Well, Canterbury's still firmly in the commuter belt, so we have London prices for everything (including rent - I pay the same rent (admittedly for a much nicer place) as my BFF who lives in Zone 1) but don't get the London loan. Not that I, as a masters student, get a loan at all anymore, but still. 

Although not having to live up north is _lovely_. For starters, I'm from Devon, and regard Kent as dark, cold and way too far to travel. My sister's at Leeds uni, and said to me when she last visited Canterbury "It's so lovely to be able to wander around at night and not have to worry about being mugged and murdered!". Her house next year comes with bars installed on the door and ground-floor windows. In my second-year house, I managed to shut the door with the keys still in the lock outside about three times, and each time, a kind randomer who was walking past posted the keys through the door :)

Canterbury's also voted in a Tory MP every election for the past million years or something (seriously, it's something like a 65-year streak), but eh, I can always vote at home :p


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## goldenquagsire (Apr 1, 2012)

> you live in york.
> york is posh as all fuck.


if York is posh by northern standards then by god the north really is grim. :P



> Canterbury's also voted in a Tory MP every election for the past million years or something (seriously, it's something like a 65-year streak), but eh, I can always vote at home :p


you guys have Tory MPs, we have this idiot. idk England just sucks in general? :P


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## ultraviolet (Apr 2, 2012)

Jolty said:


> i was surprised to learn that several countries got rid of them actually
> but yeah like tailsy said (i think it was tailsy?) if we got rid of our pennies the shield would have a hole in it and everything would be ALL WRONG
> also we'd have to get rid of 2ps. who else even HAS 2ps.


we used to have 2c coins! look so cute! and our 1c coins had possums!


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## Jolty (Apr 2, 2012)

Dannichu said:


> Although not having to live up north is _lovely_. For starters, I'm from Devon, and regard Kent as dark, cold and way too far to travel. My sister's at Leeds uni, and said to me when she last visited Canterbury "It's so lovely to be able to wander around at night and not have to worry about being mugged and murdered!". Her house next year comes with bars installed on the door and ground-floor windows. In my second-year house, I managed to shut the door with the keys still in the lock outside about three times, and each time, a kind randomer who was walking past posted the keys through the door :)





goldenquagsire said:


> if York is posh by northern standards then by god the north really is grim. :P


sometimes i do have to wonder why people even go to uni up here if you're all scared of being murdered or whatever

i tell you what though, /london/ is scary
i was nervous being in london at 6pm while totally fine being in nottingham (gun crime capital of the uk) at 2am

and omg uv those coins are amazing


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## Wargle (Apr 2, 2012)

Am I the only person who actually loves the penny? Personally I think pennies are awesome and should be kept around, but have the composition change so it doesn't cost 1.6 cents to make them. 

*dodges stones and bullets*


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## goldenquagsire (Apr 2, 2012)

> sometimes i do have to wonder why people even go to uni up here if you're all scared of being murdered or whatever


because everyone at York got rejected from Oxbridge because the rents/living costs are so amazingly cheap. and because for some reason the north has a high concentration of top-ranking universities (Durham, York, Leeds etc.)



> i tell you what though, /london/ is scary
> i was nervous being in london at 6pm while totally fine being in nottingham (gun crime capital of the uk) at 2am


it depends which bit of London you go to. :P

obviously you don't go to Peckham after sundown, but some areas are so tame I swear you could leave your front door unlocked.

that said, although York might be grim in certain ways (whoever designed the road system should probably be sacked) you're right that it's fairly tame. I've never felt at all nervous walking home alone at 3am, whereas I'd be at least a little edgy if I was to do the same in Brixton.


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## Nanabshuckle8 (Apr 2, 2012)

Tarvos said:


> Use a debit card that directly withdraws the money from your bank account. Over here cash transactions are used less and less in favour of just swiping your debit card through a little machine that allows you to wire the money directly from your bank account. No more fuss with having cash.
> 
> We've been doing this for years.





Sypl said:


> A video on the subject.
> Pennies need to go.


These are my points. Seriously, our systems rock, and yours do not. Went on a trip to france and got a few one-cents. I still see no meaning of them what so ever. Oh btw, some random info: The original finnish currency was actually named mark and penni.


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## Tarvos (Apr 2, 2012)

Didn't Finland phase out their one and two cent coins like almost immediately? If you find one of those, you're in luck


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## Tailsy (Apr 2, 2012)

sarah plays a sad violin because she's the most northern of all of you

(although as soon as i start speaking people in england tend to back down, i find)
(oddly)


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